Nokia has confirmed that its first laptop will arrive in Europe later this month.
Nokia_Booklet_3G_resized Nokia's Booklet 3G will hit Germany later this month
The Finnish phone firm announced on its official blog that its Booklet 3G will be available to buy across Germany from 22 October.
Although Nokia hasn’t said when the …

@Georgees

@Georgees

Why would it be a bad thing? People not upgrading every two seconds, trying to get the best out of perfectly functioning "old" machines (Old? My personal PC's are hovering about 5-6 years old and I'm an IT Manager - 2 years isn't "old", it's "tested"), realising that Windows *doesn't* slow down if properly managed, that the super-duper 14GHz, 27-core processors with 64Gb RAM aren't used when all you do is load up Word or Firefox, lower power consumption, longer battery life, ....

If a computer is running slower than it did the day you bought it, there's something wrong. If your computer doesn't spend 75% of it's time switched on at 100% CPU and doesn't regularly drop vital I/O that you need to pass through it... it's just *fine* for the purpose.

And from my point of view - the more people using old computers the better - you learn what slows the computer down, you learn which OS/apps are the most efficiently programmed, you learn how to manage your PC and you learn that, actually, unless you're trying to run *insert latest 3D game here* that you don't even need GHz at all most of the time. Plus it provides more support costs, which are an ongoing cost, as opposed to "It's slowed down, I'll buy a new machine" syndrome which provides money only to parts manufacturers.

Damn, from that perspective lock everyone into their current hardware now - that's what I do myself.

how much??

or is it just an ordinary netbook that would be free on a data plan that O2 are hoping to gullabalise people into buying?!

3g data is a funny thing... my Voda dongle still has £5 left from the inital £15 topup since i bought it in april! Working during the day then being home in the evening, Wifi is never that far away - those times that it is, well I have a life!! :)

Re: Contract Laptops

I'm not sure it is, people generally don't seem to see the TCO of a mobile phone over an 18/24 month contract, they just see it as a monthly service charge for their call plan, with a 'free' phone, not realising they're subsidising their phone throughout the contract. So maybe taking this model forwards for netbooks, or 'Booklets' as Nokia want to call them will open up the market a bit more by softening the financial cost of a getting one initially, even though the TCO throughout it's life is likely to be higher (the TCO of the nokia is 729 Euros for a two year contract....). However for the booklet 3G, i would imagine the main issue being asking people for 250 euros, then a monthly charge on top.

575 Euros and it comes with Vista version 2 aka W7

Err...iPhone

Doesn't seem any different to agreeing to a 24month contract for an iPhone 3GS on O2, except that with Nokia you get a proper keyboard, bigger screen and more connector ports. Ok, it's a netbook, not a phone, but you can always use Skype or a SIP client.

cost?

What is the problem......

... with the hardware being 2 years old when the contract ends?

So freaking what? It will still do the job for which it was intented.

I am still using my trusty HP NC4000 ultra portable which is about 5 years old, has a 1.6Ghz Pentium M, a gig of RAM, runs XP Pro and It still performs well in every task that I can reasonably ask of it.

If anyone buys one of these Nokia Netbooks and is so embarrassed by it being 2 years old at the end of the contract then feel free to give me a shout as I will happily take it off your hands at no cost to you, and once again you can feel free of the shame and guilt that owning such an archaic relic seems to bestow on those with more money than sense.

Locked in for two years ...

... do none of the moaners actually live in the UK:?

E.g, PC World, Dell Mini 10v, £249 plus a USB modem+dataplan, or a minimum of £20/month for 1Gb or £30 for 3Gb ("unlimited" with a 3Gb fair usage policy) for two years = £480 to £720 for the two years of the contract.

And the point of the Nokia Booklet is that it's a more powerful machine than a low-end netbook, with a longer battery life (and a corresponding increase in weight to make up for those extra batteries), a metal case and HDMI output ... and as Michael Dell has just pointed out, many experienced users (including me) look at the convenience of a netbook, then want the power of our normal machines for when we're travelling.

I'm paying £15/month for my 15Gb data stick at the moment, so if I can pay £30/month and get that and a Nokia booklet, I would definitely put it on my shortlist (it will weigh less than the old HP Compaq laptop I carry around at the moment, with it's 45 minute battery life!)